(ReclaimingAmerica.net) – Clouds seem to be darkening over US Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, a black conservative and one of the biggest thorns in the left’s side, as an inquiry by the Democrat-led Senate Finance Committee has found that he failed to repay a hefty loan for an RV.
The Senate Finance Committee’s investigation released a report on Thursday concluding that Thomas failed to adequately reimburse a substantial loan, potentially the entire sum, exceeding $267,000.
This loan, utilized for procuring a high-end recreational vehicle, was a focus of a Senate committee’s investigation, The Guardian report.
The loan, amounting to $267,230, was extended by the entrepreneur Anthony Welters in 1999 and was subsequently waived in 2008. This information first surfaced in a report by the New York Times.
The Times included a statement from Michael Hamersley, a tax attorney and expert witness in congressional hearings.
“This was, in short, a sweetheart deal’ that made no logical sense from a business perspective,” Hamersley remarked.
This revelation regarding the recreational vehicle emerged amidst many reports, primarily from ProPublica, highlighting alleged ethical breaches by Justice Thomas.
Appointed to the US Supreme Court in 1991, Thomas has been accused of failing to disclose several extravagant gifts from conservative benefactors.
Thomas denies any misconduct in these allegations, particularly those involving a Republican megadonor, his personal friend Harlan Crow.
Similar disclosures concerning other justices have raised serious concerns about the impartiality of the predominantly conservative court, points out The Guardian, a staunchly leftist news outlet.
In the specific case of the luxury recreational vehicle, a Prevost Marathon Le Mirage XL, Thomas received the loan from Welters in 1999.
“I loaned a friend money, as I have other friends and family. We’ve all been on one side or the other of that equation,” Welters explained to the NYT.
However, the Senate Finance Committee disclosed that it had reviewed documents revealing an annual interest rate of 7.5% on the loan, without a requirement to repay the principal amount, only the yearly interest of $20,042.
The committee also discovered a promissory note from Thomas agreeing to these terms.
“None of the documents reviewed by committee staff indicated that Thomas ever made payments to Welters in excess of the annual interest on the loan,” the committee report states.
